Western Michigan held the lead twice in Friday's National Collegiate Hockey Conference Tournament semifinal game against Denver, but the Broncos couldn't hold on.

The Pioneers' Ty Loney scored the game-winning goal off of a WMU turnover with 4:53 remaining in the third period and Denver held on to defeat Western Michigan 4-3 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

Denver will play in Saturday's inaugural NCHC Tournament championship game. The Broncos (19-15-5) will face the loser of Friday's other semifinal game featuring North Dakota and Miami in Saturday's third-place game.

The loss ends the Broncos' chances of getting into the NCAA tournament as there was no at-large bid scenario to move WMU into the top 16 of the Pairwise rankings to get into the national tournament. WMU needed to receive the automatic bid by winning the NCHC Tournament.

Western Michigan gained a 1-0 lead 42 seconds into the game when Nolan LaPorte dumped the puck into the DU zone and it hopped around and bounced off of Brittain and into the net.

Denver tied the score at a goal apiece with 11:26 left in the opening period when Daniel Doremus buried the biscuit.

The Broncos thought they had a 2-1 lead on a goal by Sam Mellor, but officials disallowed the goal after a review to keep the score tied with 9:50 remaining in the first period.

The Pioneers took the lead almost three minutes after that when Grant Arnold found the back of the net with 6:57 left in the opening frame.

The Broncos knotted the score at a goal apiece when senior Shane Berschbach lit the lamp on a breakaway drive to the net 6:11 into the second period.

Western Michigan scored again to take a 3-2 lead with 1:54 remaining in the first period when Will Kessel drove to the net and snuck one past Brittain.

The Broncos couldn’t close the door on the period, which they controlled the play in for the most part.

Denver’s go-to man Joey LaLeggia lit the lamp on a wrist shot from the point with three seconds left in the second period.

The Broncos were 0-for-2 on the power play while the Pioneers were 0-for-1 with the man advantage.